An Optimization-based Methodology for Release Scheduling*

Operational-level scheduling decisions on the factory floor include the release policy and the dispatching rule. Recent work by researchers suggests that factory performance depends heavily on the release policy. Several heuristic factory release rules have been developed that generate release decisions based on the status of the bottleneck machine. The heuristic rules perform very well in reducing the work-in-process inventory. However, factory output schedules generated by these rules generally fail to match the demand pattern, creating excessive finished goods inventory and/or excessive backorders. To overcome these difficulties, a computationally efficient integer programming model is proposed for release scheduling. (SCHEDULING; RELEASE POLICIES; RESTRICTED START MODELS)